


Kelas Parmak Headcanons of Joy and Terror:

by atomicmayo



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: A Stitch in Time - Andrew Robinson, Gen, Headcanon, Meta, The Crimson Shadow (Star Trek Novel)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-06
Updated: 2015-05-06
Packaged: 2018-03-29 08:54:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3890194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/atomicmayo/pseuds/atomicmayo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What do you do when a character is mentioned once in an episode of Star Trek: DS9 and never shown on screen or referenced again? You naturally read all the expanded universe material on him you can and generate headcanons for him - that's what you do. It's fun, it's probably legal, and it's disconcertingly meta. (Spoilers for the Star Trek Novels A Stitch In Time and The Crimson Shadow, as well as the short story The Calling... and the end of the series generally).</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Physical Appearance (and a bit of rambling about the Cardassian medical system toward the end)

**Author's Note:**

> So, I got a really cool ask from vaiyamagic on tumblr about her headcanons for Parmak, and it made me want to get my own ideas down for him because a) my computer crashed and I am going to have to re-write everything on my harddrive about him from scratch anyway and b) my headcanons for him seem to differ a lot from other people’s. I don’t know if that’s a bad thing or not, but I’ve already typed out four pages of junk so it’s too late to back out now!
> 
> So, I’m working from the Character Survey of Doom as a loose guide (if anyone can point me to the original source for that I’d be happy to link to it!) and I’m going to start picking through some of the parts of it – physical appearance, mental and emotional stuff, relationships and daily life.
> 
> I’ll probably get a little into the original characters later, too – as ONE FILE for them was one of the few things my computer didn’t eat.
> 
> So here’s the first part!

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE:

In terms of height and build, Parmak is maybe about an inch shorter than Garak. I tend to make most Cardassians a little stockier, so Parmak would fit into that body type fairly well - he might’ve been a bit thinner when he was younger - and he obviously lost weight in the camps and later after the destruction. He is about the same age as Garak plus or minus two to three years, so I try to make him look as solidly middle-aged as I can whenever I draw him. He has a fairly standard grey-with-blue-undertone complexion a lot of other Cardassians have, but I think he might have a few more wrinkles around the eyes. I tend to make his eyes greyish blue.

Despite what he’s been through, I think he’s fairly healthy for his age. He generally carries himself well, good posture and the like - he’d only ever slouch if he was totally exhausted. He has fairly poised movements unless he’s nervous - might get a little clumsy. He shows emotion on his face more easily than he would like – cracks a genuine smile a little more readily than others of his kind and definitely never had the best ‘poker face’.

He has a couple little physical quirks - he rubs his palm of his hand with his thumb when he’s stressed or tired - pinches the bit of muscle between his thumb and index finger when he’s worried. He might square his shoulders and stretch his arms, but this attracts a *lot* of attention to his neck, so he probably wouldn’t do that unless he was at home.

He has one or two distinguishing features that people immediately take notice of - there’s the obvious long hair thing, and I give him two sort of whorls on his chin, I also give him a little nick or ridge (think what the average Cardassian has on their chin) on either side of his mid-jaw - I think other Cardassians would find the dealie on his chin kind of sweet – think moles or birthmarks in a flattering place. I don’t think they would be so charmed by the hair, which I’ll get into in a second.

Overall, he isn’t considered wholly unattractive among his people. I think he’d clean up well. He is definitely not the type to stare at himself in the mirror and fuss over his appearance, but the times he has been dressed up by other people, he likes what he sees.

This is probably the one obvious thing I keep in step with the rest of the fandom on – the famous HAIR OF KELAS PARMAK.

Like other folks I like it long, probably just past his shoulders - same texture and blue-black sort of color as the average Cardassian. He doesn’t do anything too ornate with it - usually has it neatly-but-loosely tied back unless he’s about to go to bed or has just woke up. If someone wants him to leave his hair down I think he’d oblige.

Now, there are a lot of headcanons as to why Parmak’s hair is so long; people usually make it for very intentional reasons or things traumatic related to the camp or something. In a lot of ways, Parmak already betrays the standard Cardassian tropes and ideals, so I took a bit of a stretch here:

Kelas initially grew his hair out by accident.

Now don’t get me wrong, Parmak’s a very capable doctor and is responsible when he has to be - he can ground himself in reality when he needs to. He is not the kind of person who carelessly ignores details, either (contrary to what Garak might say, which is a whole other thing).

That being said, I see him as a guy that gets wrapped up in his own head in most of his free moments. He does his job admirably, comes home, makes a bit of dinner and probably has a good long think while he’s sipping a glass of kanar before bed. He might notice the wear in the fabric of his tunic, or the glance in the mirror and notice he needed to visit the barber a week or two (or seven) ago, but he procrastinates because he is *thinking*. He’s a scientist and likes to dive into the intellectual depths of things, but is also sensitive and easily moved - he spends most his nights coming up with the minutiae of a potential Cardassian democracy in his head; simultaneously in awe at the possibilities a democratic world might bring and in despair at the horrendous suffering the current system is causing.

He can always get his hair cut tomorrow.

His loved ones begin to notice the hair beginning to brush well past his collar, and initially chastise him for it - but then start to see it as just part of who he is. They even begin to like it. His co-workers and patients wonder about it, but they already find it strange enough to be working with or treated by a male doctor. He’s already some man thinking he can practice medicine and be an actual scientist - of course he does things like grow his hair out, the misfit.

So, casual observers file it away in the standard layers of Cardassian cultural subtext and move right along. That’s my big headcanon on the hairs.

When it comes to clothes, I think a lot of what he wears are nondescript suits he could easily wear to work. Unassuming colors, muted. He does have a special jacket I tend to draw him in - a dark grey thing with very light blue down the front. It’s a male-tailored version the coat all post-fellowship physicians get at the hospital Parmak works at after he gets out of the camp.

Because of Parmak’s age, I think he finished whatever the Cardassian equivalents to residency and a fellowship were a good while before he became Tain’s personal physician.

Parmak gets hired on at this hospital post-labor camp, and is given his coat based on years of experience and specialization. This leads to friction between him and his colleagues, as he shows up and they suddenly have to seek him out for consultations and (at times) approval in decisions. This gets into the dynamic between him and his boss, who I’m calling Dr. Vraskim, which I might focus on in a later post. (Dr. Vraskim survives the destruction and is involved with the medical unit in Stitch, as is a couple of Parmak’s colleagues).

As much as I wanted to stick with the 'cardiologist’ pun, I decided to make Parmak’s specialization immunology, which covers rheumatological conditions like arthritis, joint pain or gout – it would make Tain probably want to seek him out as a personal physician because it seems like fairly logical stuff for Tain to be suffering from.

I think the average Cardassian doctor only spends a few years in the residency/fellowship/practice bit of her career because it isn’t seen as prestigious in Cardassian culture, which is focused on military applications for everything. A doctor on Cardassia probably sees starting scientific research as the true beginning of her career. Parmak was trying to get a jump on things early in his career by conducting intensive research as well as actively practicing medicine, which probably attracted attention. I think he does enjoy working with his patients and actually has a very good bedside manner, but this wouldn’t be normal for his people, and I think he would try to downplay it somewhat.

A little more world-building to tie into this - because the sciences are considered feminine, 'nursing’ or medical support jobs are considered more masculine. The closest equivalent to a nurse on Cardassia is referred to as a 'doctor’s aide’ - they fulfill a combination of duties that would be similar to a nurse, CNA and orderly. They basically make sure the patient is breathing, relatively stable, and is moved from place to place – that’s it.

Kelas has been mistaken for a 'doctor’s aide’ for most of his career.

Depending on how busy a hospital is, a doctor can have up to three aides. Parmak’s hospital is mid-sized and (like most health facilities on Cardassia) is very underfunded, so he has one aide, which I’ll get into at some point.

I think that’s it for now. Thoughts? Insights? Burned tires? Send them my way!


	2. Voice, Mental and Emotional Qualities, Educational and Technical Skills, Social Temperament (and an addendum on vesala)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This post gets into Parmak’s voice, mental and emotional qualities, education and social temperament. The stuff about his voice probably should’ve gone under the first post because it’s a physical quality, but it also talks generally about his style of discourse… given that Cardassians value conversation so highly, I figured I’d include it. I also ramble a little bit about Cardassian social dynamics in an addendum. So yeah – go wade in the sea of Parmak-related text.
> 
> This one feels a bit more broken up and rambley than the first one, so I hope it’s all fairly understandable…

VOICE

Kelas’ voice is even, thoughtful. He’s a little soft-spoken, but he isn’t hesitating or sullen; it’s a voice with a lot to say. He has a standard accent most people in the capitol have, which might speak to his social class as well (upper-middle? I think his parents were of different classes). I can see him making an effort to speak in ways that put other people at ease - it isn’t a change in dialect so much as a change in register.

I think with the sense of conformity on Cardassia, learning other languages might be frowned upon unless required for a job that would be beneficial to the state. He might have vague memories of a grandparent talking to him in a language that he never fully grasped, but that’s about it. He relies on the universal translator for pretty much everything non-mutually intelligible with Kardasi.

He asks a lot of open-ended questions to facilitate a conversation before he really ‘speaks’ – unless someone is soliciting his opinion directly on something. He probably sees it as finding the tools he needs to speak adequately on a topic. I think he’d be up-front about telling people he needs to mull things over for a while before having something to say. This probably comes from occasionally making an ass of himself when he was younger and more idealistic, and would jump into an opinion maybe without getting a full view of what was happening.

He’s typically eloquent once he begins to really talk, although he might get wrapped up in a bit of an inner monologue while he is speaking to some else - catch himself droning on or 'lecturing’ a little.

He’s been around. He has a good knowledge base, and knows how to improvise a bit if he has to. He can command attention from important (and even intimidating) people, and is capable of impressing them.

Kelas is alarmingly clear in his speech when he’s afraid.

MENTAL AND EMOTIONAL CHARACTERISTICS

He favors his book-smarts, but has become more pragmatic as he has gotten older. In terms of decision-making skills, he has the ability to make the accurate, quick judgments that make for a good doctor, but ask him what he wants to do with his day off or what to make for dinner and he’d probably 'hmm and haw’ for a bit.

In terms of thought process, tended to be very theoretical in his younger days. Adding the quirks of other people into those theories might have been like throwing a wrench into the works. He was personable enough, but had a habit of thinking systemically than on a 'person-to-person’ sort of basis - an odd oversight on his part, given that even at a pretty young age he still had that good bedside manner, and in daily life could be very sympathetic to people when they’re right in front of him. It was a sort of logical oversight that Parmak realized was a big problem in the way he thought about the world and dealt with other people. The people close to Parmak helped him through of this shortcoming, and it’s something he’s become much more cognizant of it in his thought process as he’s aged.

-

I’m certain he’d have a PTSD diagnosis, and I think he’s aware of it (although he’d probably call it something else). While I think the interrogation was terrifying for him, I don’t think it gave him PTSD. I have various ideas about the labor camp and what happened to him there. In the storyline I’ve been working on he kills another doctor in self-defense while in the camp – that’s the main incident associated with his PTSD.

There’s a sizable gap in time between the labor camp and the destruction of Cardassia, at least four years, probably more. So he may have developed strategies in that intervening time to manage his PTSD, but obviously the destruction would make his symptoms worse.

I think he self-medicates with sedatives for a while after the destruction, mostly before and during the events of Stitch. He offers sedatives pretty freely to Garak – I headcanon it as him doing it to ease his own conscience as much as Garak being his patient. It makes for a particularly sad bit of commonality they could find with each other.

Once the situation on Cardassia becomes a bit more stable, Parmak stops being so reliant on the pills and begins to address his issues in a healthier way. The civil war and the plague would obviously factor into all this too, depending on how much you want to integrate them into canon. The Federation gets there eventually, so maybe he tracks down a counselor to talk to.

Parmak’s greatest fear is probably a return to the way things were – an undemocratic, totalitarian state observing your every move. He has the same ingrained love for the state as any other of his species, but he is set apart in how he demonstrates that love by acknowledging that a state is a system that can have intense, devastating flaws. Garak uses a metaphor in the end of Stitch where he tells Parmak to look at the planet as a sick patient that needs to be healed – if you stick with that metaphor, Parmak’s greatest fear is that the patient will relapse.

EDUCATION AND TECHNICAL SKILLS

He is very well-educated. I think his mother (also a doctor) had the expertise to inspire him, but his father (a low-level bureaucrat) had the vesala* to pull a couple strings and make sure he could get into one of the better medical academies despite being male. I don’t know if there’s a precedent for class rankings on Cardassia, but I think he would feel very motivated to prove himself because he was one of the few men there, so he would’ve graduated fairly high in his class.

I mentioned immunology as his medical specialty. I don’t think he’s the top expert in his field, but he’s done research and is definitely respected within his specialty. I think aliens would be more interested in what he has to say about his area of expertise than other Cardassians would, however – not so much because him being a social outcast or a lack of professional credibility, but simply because he is a male doctor and is seen as an eccentric by other Cardassians. “Yes, yes your insights into development of artificial phospholipid antibodies was very compelling, but please don’t stand next to me, you weirdo.”

In the RPG guidebooks they mention specialists being issued particularly crappy equipment, and that Cardassian engineers regularly tweak or hack their tricorders for more functionality. I’d hazard a guess that this is just as much the case for medical personnel if not more so, given they’re allocated even less resources than engineers.

The short story The Calling indicates Parmak having at least some basic knowledge of electronics, as he fixes the PA system Garak uses to give his speech. All the equipment Parmak keeps in his medkit has varying levels of modification applied to it - at least a dermal regenerator, a hypospray, a scale-knitter and a well-used and heavily modded tricorder that his aide jokingly refers to as 'Dr. Parmak’s son’.

As an aside, I like to think when his life wasn’t so messed up he was a bit of an amateur astronomer - something considered pretty rare for a species well into space travel technologically. He’d wander up into the hills above the dust and smog, and track the movements of old Hebitian constellations and with some little bits of homemade star-tracking equipment.

SOCIAL TEMPERAMENT

Bear in mind that we don’t always see Parmak in ideal conditions. We first hear of his existence when he is being broken down and confessing everything to an interrogator. We catch the first real glimpses of his personality just after his planet has been almost completely razed. It would make sense that his general temperament is being affected a lot due to external stressors.

We get more of a good baseline for his temperament in the beginning of The Crimson Shadow, where he and Garak spend time with Picard and Crusher. He seems fairly sociable, cheerful, making jokes and lightheartedly arguing with Garak a little bit. He is there (and knows he is there) for a diplomatic reason - so Picard and Crusher can see a Cardassian that isn’t another power-hungry stereotype, but I think a lot of the things he says and does during that scene are his genuine personality, which is why Garak wanted him there. I took it as him being there, quite literally, to be himself.

Parmak is described in Stitch as mostly 'keeping his own counsel’, but I think that might have had to do with the situation he was dealing with (mental disorder, extreme stress, etc.) and his relationship with Garak at the time than any inherent personality trait. Parmak might have forgiven Garak, but forgiveness and trust are two very different things and I don’t know how comfortable Parmak was around Garak at that point.

(A lot of this is also contingent upon how reliable you find Garak as a narrator – which is another thing entirely!)

I think Parmak would tend toward liking being alone, but he isn’t going to be listless and miserable if he’s socializing, either - having too much of either that would start to get to him. When writing stuff for him I think about particularly intense relationships or friendships he’s had; the nature of those relationships are more telling of his character in my mind than whether he’s just solely an introvert or extrovert.

The way he reacts to new situations (socially or otherwise) has probably changed much over the course of his life. I think particularly after the attack on Cardassia – he begins to realize there is not much of an infrastructure left to punish him for what he thinks, so he becomes a little more open about himself. This probably makes other, less introspective Cardassians immediately suspicious when they first meet him. Why is he being so up-front? Is he lying? Is he an idiot? What’s up with this guy?

Before that point, he was probably trying to keep his head down as much as possible. Intellectually, he knew he probably was of no consequence to the Obsidian Order anymore, but emotionally he had already been imprisoned and was terrified of it happening again. At one point I wrote about him having trouble sleeping because he had this fear that they would come back in the middle of the night to interrogate him again, or simply kill him. He would be polite to people, even welcoming, but would never give out any details about himself if he could avoid it, and was probably very lonely at this time. In my storyline for him his significant others were either dead or out of the picture by this point – Kelas was completely alone.

In a situation where everyone is standing around watching a scene unfold, he would be one of the first to act because of the way he is conditioned as a doctor – like I said before, the ability to make quick decisions comes naturally to him. There is a difference between being active and being aggressive though, and I think in terms of the whole fight-or-flight response he’d opt for flight unless he was cornered or had to protect someone else.

-

I think that’s about it for now. The next post will be about relationships, beliefs and daily life.

ADDENDUM: VESALA.

Vesala is a Cardassian social concept explored in the RPG guidebooks -I think it might be inspired by the real-life Chinese concept of guanxi. My lame, massively oversimplified definition of vesala is:

The dynamic of reciprocity in a relationship.

It’s basically the 'give-and-take’ system of favors and contacts, but it’s a lot more complicated than that.

From my understanding, vesala is a lot more overtly commodified than guanxi. If you think of episodes where Garak hits up his contacts for information or favors vesala would imply that this is more than just Garak pulling some 'OMG Obsidian Order Intimidation’ stuff, but that calling in favors and hitting up contacts to get things done is something all Cardassians - including Parmak - do to be able to function in society.

I think how Kelas accumulates and spends his vesala is totally different compared to the other Cardassians we’ve seen.

There is probably a big toolbox of vesala-garnering tactics that Cardassians have, and some tactics come more naturally for certain people than others. Even in the ever-present cloud of suspicion in Cardassian society, Parmak’s go-to tactic would be utilizing the more disarming elements of his nature to come off as 'harmless’, and he could get people to drop their guard by using these tactics, ultimately making them more amenable to trading favors with him.

You occasionally see Garak or Dukat plastering on kind of a bland smile sometimes – and I see that as them trying to utilize the same skill that comes so naturally to Parmak. I’m sure the reverse can also happen; in his younger days, I could see Parmak making attempts to come off as menacing to give people the impression things should be done for him – I don’t think is was ever very successful for him, but it’s not for lack of trying.

Parmak’s ability to come off as disarming might even be the 'in’ that got Garak to eventually show some vulnerability, helping to deal with the issues lingering between them because of the interrogation, and ultimately bringing them closer.

While I don’t see Parmak often using his sensitivity to consciously manipulate others, the same personality traits that ultimately help him acquire vesala might have shaped his rationale when he broke down during the interrogation and told Garak everything. He let himself be open and terrified in front of this man, because Parmak figured if he came off as harmless he might save his own life - and it got him the time in a labor camp instead of execution, so arguably it worked.

Anyway, I imagine Parmak scraping the bottom of his metaphorical barrel of vesala to be able to practice medicine again once he got out of the camp. It’d be interesting to get into where he got that network of contacts and favors from in the first place.


End file.
